[Solved] Can Integrated Video run dual monitors?

I am putting together a system for a friend. The machine will be used exclusively for business use (web, email, some accounting software packages). Maybe some very light gaming. I have selected this mobo for the build:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128432

(1) He wants to be able to run dualmonitors at 1920 x 1080 or maybe 1920x1200. Can this be done with just the integrated video or would I need a video card?

(2) If he wants to run three displays I assume he would need a video card. Would we need a 5000 series radeon to do this? What would be the most cost effective way to run three monitors for a non-gaming application? Radeon 5450?

Thanks in advance.

Dual monitors should run using the D-sub (VGA) and either DVI-D or HDMI. The DVI and HDMI can not both display at the same time.
To run a 3 monitors of a hd5xxx card one of them needs to have a display port.

Firstly, NO. He cannot or you cannot run two monitors from the onboard graphics of this board ( Or as far as I know, It's not available with Onboard graphics capabilities of any mobo)

To run 2 monitors he will need a graphics card ( I believe all of them do have DISPLAY Ports) ANY card supporting 2 displays will work (Too many of them out there to list here)

To run 3 Display from the machine, he'll need a card that supports 3 Monitors or a combination of VGA link converters to get all the displays to work at the same Frequency and resolution.

Check out the following topics here and elsewhere for more info...

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2 [...] -club.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] itors-card

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] d-monitors

Hope this helps

Onboard graphics cards can't display on more then one monitor at a time. They usually have just one VGA port, sometimes one DVI port. However I have seen some motherboards that don't have a VGA port but that have TWO DVI ports. I don't know if its able to display from both ports at the same time though, you can do research on that if you want, if it works it might save you or the client some money on this pc

As for light gaming, these days most standard motherboards that you buy in stores have a mimimum of 128-256mb graphics cards which aint all that bad for light gaming depending on how light the gaming exactly is. Only thing is the pc has to have decent RAM that goes with it, I'd say 1GB sould be enough but don't go less then 1GB if you plan on having only the onboard graphics card as it will take its memory from the RAM.

Hope this helps at least a lil bit.

My post is based on following information from Gigabytes site video connectors;
# 1 x D-Sub port
# 1 x DVI-D port (Note 2)(Note 3)
# 1 x HDMI port (Note 3)
Relevant foot notes;
(Note 2) The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
(Note 3) Simultaneous output for DVI-D and HDMI is not supported.

QED......... that leaves the onboard driving TWO monitors. As in 2 for the add-in card and 2 off the motherboard.

You're right about the 'certain GPU' restriction. Even though the onboard IGP is HD 4200 it still only works in hybrid mode with HD3450/HD3470. There is a note Im trying to track down that says 758G/HD 4200 will work in hybrid mode with newer video cards (HD 5450 for example).

The HD 4350 would work OK as far as providing two additional monitor support. It just wouldn't crossfire with the HD 4200 IGP to get a small boost in 3D/gaming performance. In Hybrid Crossfire mode you'd only be using 1 monitor for gaming anyway. It's not a 3 or 4 monitor mode option.

I know one objective of this build will be for 'some very light gaming'. Can you better describe the scope of that?
Im leaning toward suggesting a more robust discrete video card option and not bothering with Hybrid Crossfire mode at all.

Have you looked over the feature set of AMD's Hydravision Multi-monitor Management Software yet?

Best answer selected by guggas.

yeah thanks for the info. As far as SC2 I'm currently playing the beta on my own machine which has an ati 5770 and an amd phenomII 945 3.0ghz x4, 4 gigs ddr2, win 7 pro x64. It does not perform as well as I had hoped on SC2 if I put the game settings on very high, or even just high it lags pretty bad. Hopefuly that will get better with a full launch of the game.